Time Magazine's Man Of The Year!

Yadier To The Rescue

Yadier Molina doesn't come up with many home runs but he knows how to pick his spots. His Game 7 dinger brought the Cardinals the pennant and last night he blasted two longballs that brought his club with in two and a half games of the Brewers. His batterymate Adam Wainwright looked as sharp as he did as the stopper last October in the 8-0 win that completed a three-game sweep of the very vulnerable Brewers. Milwaukee has lost 13 of 18, haven't gotten a win from a starting pitcher in a fortnight and are just a half-game up on the Cubs. The two pursuers face off in the latest round of their rivalry this weekend and if the Brewers don't pick up some wins they won't be in first place come Monday.

Those Cubs avoided a sweep at the hands of the Reds thanks to Mark DeRosa's big day. He was 5-for-5 with 4 RBI and the Cubs thrashed Cincy's staff in a 12-4 victory. That's a good way to get ready for four games with the Redbirds, starting with Braden Looper and Sean Hill this afternoon at Wrigley Field.

Cole Hamels is the only person Barbara Bush fears. Cole Hamels' picture is on every crisp 100 dollar bill. Cole Hamels is a 14 game winner after pitching six and two-thirds shutout innings in Philly's 4-2 win against the Nationals. For all of his skills he can't close his own games which almost caused disaster for the Phillies as the Nats rallied against Tom Gordon but Chris Roberson made a nifty double play to bail out the pen and Brett Myers threw a scoreless ninth to move his club back into second place in the East.

The Phils are three back of the Mets after the Amazins blew a five-run lead and lost to the Pirates 10-7. They missed out on a sweep when David Wright and Mike DiFelice made errors with two outs in the eighth inning and Aaron Heilman wilted under the added pressure of his teammates. If the Mets end up at home when October baseball begins they can point to this one as a reason why, it's too late in the game to suffer these kinds of games.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have been lost in the shuffle this season. They don't have the flashiest players nor the big market support of your Bostons and New Yorks but they just keep winning. Last night's 5-4 win over the Marlins was the 19th in 24 games and featured such non-household names as Chris Young, Mark Reynolds and Jose Valverde in starring roles.